Bookstore acknowledges double-billing

Stanford Bookstore customers who
made credit-card purchases last year from Oct. 1 through 5 should
check their statements to make sure that they were not
double-billed, says Peggy Mendelson, president and CEO of the
store.

Mendelson reacted to the problem
publicly after the Stanford Daily published an article on
the subject on May 28.

An error in the bookstore's cash
register software, which was installed last September, caused an
unknown number of customers to be charged twice. Mendelson says the
signal verifying bank approval of credit cards was not working
properly on the new system, and cashiers, thinking that the
transaction had not taken place, re-entered the amount on the old
system, which had been kept in place as a backup.

Mendelson says the software problem
was corrected after cashiers complained to the bookstore's
Information Systems staff that the verification system was not
working properly and it was holding up customers during the fall
rush period.

"We certainly apologize for the
inconvenience," says Mendelson.

Since early October, up to 450
people have contacted the bookstore or their credit-card companies
to report the overcharging, which appeared as two separate,
identical transactions on their statements. Mendelson says that
$32,000 has been returned to these customers.

It is not known how many other
people might have been affected by the malfunctioning system.
During the rush period, when many students buy course books,
customers make about 6,500 purchases, compared with 3,500 on a
non-rush day. "We think the majority of the time [the credit-card
system] worked, but there's no way to tell," says
Mendelson.

The bookstore did not try to reach
potentially affected customers, although Mendelson says it refunded
those who reported the problem. "Hindsight is always good on
something like this," she says. "We probably should have taken an
ad out in the [Stanford] Daily. But we didn't see a pattern
because billing patterns were so varied." Billing cycles ranged
from 30 to 180 days, she says.

Police Lt. Del Bandy says that Sgt.
Rick Tipton conducted a preliminary investigation into the matter.
"So far we have detected no criminal intent; however, the case is
not closed yet," says Bandy.

Santa Clara County Assistant
District Attorney Al Weger says his office would be able to give an
opinion on the incident only if the Stanford police department
forwarded the investigation to his office for review. But he was
critical of the bookstore taking an "it's not our problem" attitude
when the error potentially affected so many customers. "That's
disturbing," he says. "I would hope they'd be a little more careful
in the future."

Mendelson says the bookstore did not
double-bill anyone on purpose. "We had absolutely no intent to
violate any law," she says.

Bookstore staff are trying to run
reports on sales during the Oct. 1-5 period to see if it can track
affected customers who did not contact the store for a refund. "The
information we can elicit [may] help us find the missing people,"
she says.

Earlier plans to find a new manager
to lease the operation, which is owned and run independently of the
university, are still expected to proceed on June 30, Mendelson
says. Double-billed customers who contact the store after the new
management takes over will be credited retroactively.
SR